The Community Reporting Alliance

The Community Reporting Alliance is a non-profit organization that aims to build strong communities by channeling the youth passion for journalism and love of community. We currently manage and fund three library-based youth led news projects.

Our main priority is to provide local news out to communities who are starved of news. Our best weapon in this fight is not necessarily the big bucks of better-known news advocates, but rather the passion of the people who have an idea for local reporting that sparks interest and support from that community.

According to a 2011 FCC report, hyperlocal information is better than ever. Technology has allowed people to help create and share news on a very local level—by town, neighborhood, or even block.

The Community Reporting Alliance believes that through journalism the youth can tell the stories of their communities in their own voice.

Our Projects

The Ferguson Phoenix, is our newest project and was launched on December 28, 2015 with an accompanying website. It was founded in the aftermath of the fatal shooting of Mike Brown by the police in Ferguson, MO. That incident became a flashpoint of police and community relations in the country.

The Ferguson Phoenix provides the young people the opportunity to tell their community's stories in their own voice. In addition the youth receives first-hand experience building a business from the ground up.

Manor Ink is a library-based, youth-led newspaper, in print and online at manorink.com. It was founded in the Livingston Manor Free Library (serving an upstate New York district of 3,483) in February of 2012. Manor Ink was born to provide teens with employment skills while giving the community a local news source. A core group of 15 young people ages 9 to 19 meet weekly in the library with dedicated adult mentors. In an era when local newspapers and small libraries are struggling, Manor Ink has brought vitality to both and an expression of hope to a careworn community.

Coal Cracker is written and photographed by young people of the Coal Region. It's a forum for young ideas, a place for young people to express themselves—not just among themselves—but for people of every age, to see and to hear their unique perspectives on what it means to live here—whether they were born and raised here or whether they are new to the Coal Region.